Main navigation

Breadcrumb

In 2017, the Massachusetts attorney general's office reached an agreement under which Boston-based Copley Advertising agreed to eschew sending mobile ads to patients visiting Planned Parenthood and other health clinics. In 2015, Copley's geofencing technique used location information from smartphones and other internet-enabled devices to target "abortion-minded" women and send them ads for alternatives to abortion in a campaign it conducted on behalf of a Christian pregnancy counselling and adoption service. The women would continue receiving these ads for up to a month. Copley described the ads as "an exercise of free speech under the First Amendment". The Massachusetts attorney general said that instead the use of geofencing interfered with health privacy even though it is not illegal under the US Health Information Portability and Accountability Act.

People must know

People must be able to know what data is being generated by devices, the networks and platforms we use, and the infrastructure within which devices become embedded. People should be able to know and ultimately determine the manner of processing.